Marshall University Athletics
Sunday, January 17
Bowling Green, KY
3 p.m. eastern/2 p.m. central
Marshall University
-35,24 CUSA
60
at
69
Western Kentucky University
-37,22 CUSA
1
2
3
4
F
Marshall
15
12
12
21
60
Western Ky.
22
10
12
25
69
Savannah Wheeler
Marshall Leads Late, but Tops Emerge with Win
1/17/2021 6:58:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Wheeler nets 24
FINAL STATS
KEMPER POSTGAME COMMENTS
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – WKU's Raneem Elgedawy, Meral Abdelgawad and Hope Sivori combined for 51 of the Lady Tops' 69 points and the home team defeated the visiting Marshall women's basketball team 69-60 Sunday afternoon in E.A. Diddle Arena.
WKU improved to 3-7 overall and 2-2 in the league, while Marshall dropped to 3-5 and 2-4 in the league.
Elgedawy had 20 points on 8-for-12 shooting, while Abdelgawad made three 3-pointers en route to 16 points and Sivori went 8-for-8 at the free throw line to tally 15. Fatou Pouye had a game-high 11 rebounds.
Marshall received 24 points from Savannah Wheeler, who went 7-for-14 from the floor and 7-for-7 at the free throw line. Kennedi Colclough also added 15 on 7-for-11 shooting. Mahogany Matthews led the team with six rebounds and added two blocks.
The Tops were red-hot to start the game, making five of their first six 3-pointers, to build a 20-11 lead at the 5:06 mark of the first quarter following an Elgedawy triple.
WKU was able to maintain its advantage all the way to the 2:24 mark of the fourth period, when Kristen Mayo made two free throws to give the Thundering Herd its first lead at 54-53.
That was short-lived however, as the Tops ripped off a 12-0 run to grab an 11-point advantage (65-54) on a Myriah Haywood layup with 41 seconds left.
Neither team took especially great care of the ball. Marshall committed 21 turnovers, while the Tops made 19 errors.
WKU held a big edge in free throw attempts (27-11), though the Herd missed just once from there. WKU, however, shot just 59.3 percent (16 makes).
The Thundering Herd is back home next weekend with a Friday game against FIU at 6 p.m., followed by a 3 p.m. tip on Saturday.
Head Coach Tony Kemper
Opening Statement…
Give credit to them (Western Kentucky). I think our team was ready to play. This was a different team than Thursday. We couldn't overcome it. Offensively, we struggled all night. We had a couple runs where it was too difficult to score. Defensively, we didn't have our best game. I thought we had a couple chances at the end, we fought back and took the lead, and then we were not good in the last minute and a half.
On Savannah Wheeler's 24-point performance…
She's a good basketball player. We needed her to be cleaner down the stretch. We needed to help her. I wanted to give her a break, but we couldn't. We're still in the process of getting our feet under our legs. We need to get in game shape. She is a heck of a player.
On team chemistry…
I think it's fine. I think they're a group that likes to be around each other. We just need to play better. We talked about this, figuring out the right combinations and growing out there. We do have quite a few that are similar. We need someone to step up and become more consistent.
On learning from the WKU series and moving forward to FIU at home…
I think we just have to be better. We have to play better on the road and play cleaner down the stretch of games. We need to grow in that aspect. We have a tough opponent coming in. We have to be ready to play.
KEMPER POSTGAME COMMENTS
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – WKU's Raneem Elgedawy, Meral Abdelgawad and Hope Sivori combined for 51 of the Lady Tops' 69 points and the home team defeated the visiting Marshall women's basketball team 69-60 Sunday afternoon in E.A. Diddle Arena.
WKU improved to 3-7 overall and 2-2 in the league, while Marshall dropped to 3-5 and 2-4 in the league.
Elgedawy had 20 points on 8-for-12 shooting, while Abdelgawad made three 3-pointers en route to 16 points and Sivori went 8-for-8 at the free throw line to tally 15. Fatou Pouye had a game-high 11 rebounds.
Marshall received 24 points from Savannah Wheeler, who went 7-for-14 from the floor and 7-for-7 at the free throw line. Kennedi Colclough also added 15 on 7-for-11 shooting. Mahogany Matthews led the team with six rebounds and added two blocks.
The Tops were red-hot to start the game, making five of their first six 3-pointers, to build a 20-11 lead at the 5:06 mark of the first quarter following an Elgedawy triple.
WKU was able to maintain its advantage all the way to the 2:24 mark of the fourth period, when Kristen Mayo made two free throws to give the Thundering Herd its first lead at 54-53.
That was short-lived however, as the Tops ripped off a 12-0 run to grab an 11-point advantage (65-54) on a Myriah Haywood layup with 41 seconds left.
Neither team took especially great care of the ball. Marshall committed 21 turnovers, while the Tops made 19 errors.
WKU held a big edge in free throw attempts (27-11), though the Herd missed just once from there. WKU, however, shot just 59.3 percent (16 makes).
The Thundering Herd is back home next weekend with a Friday game against FIU at 6 p.m., followed by a 3 p.m. tip on Saturday.
Head Coach Tony Kemper
Opening Statement…
Give credit to them (Western Kentucky). I think our team was ready to play. This was a different team than Thursday. We couldn't overcome it. Offensively, we struggled all night. We had a couple runs where it was too difficult to score. Defensively, we didn't have our best game. I thought we had a couple chances at the end, we fought back and took the lead, and then we were not good in the last minute and a half.
On Savannah Wheeler's 24-point performance…
She's a good basketball player. We needed her to be cleaner down the stretch. We needed to help her. I wanted to give her a break, but we couldn't. We're still in the process of getting our feet under our legs. We need to get in game shape. She is a heck of a player.
On team chemistry…
I think it's fine. I think they're a group that likes to be around each other. We just need to play better. We talked about this, figuring out the right combinations and growing out there. We do have quite a few that are similar. We need someone to step up and become more consistent.
On learning from the WKU series and moving forward to FIU at home…
I think we just have to be better. We have to play better on the road and play cleaner down the stretch of games. We need to grow in that aspect. We have a tough opponent coming in. We have to be ready to play.
Team Stats
Marsh
WestKy
FG%
.396
.434
3FG%
.333
.389
FT%
.909
.593
RB
30
36
TO
21
19
STL
7
9
Game Leaders
Pts
24
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
7
Pts
15
FGM
7
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
5
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG
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Thursday, February 27
Marshall Women's Basketball: Juli Fulks (Post App State)
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